Cards are currently used in numerous fields of application. They are intended especially for carrying out bank, telephone, identification and/or authentication operations. These operations can be performed either by inserting the card into a reader (contact mode in which the card chip, equipped with electrical contact zones, comes into contact with a reader), or by reading the magnetic track of the card, or remotely (contactless mode) by electromagnetic coupling between a transceiver terminal and an antenna integrated into the card, which is placed in the action zone of the terminal. In the last-named case, the card chip is not necessarily used (this depends on the configurations).
Owing to progress made in recent years in the designing and manufacture of cards, it is presently possible to include new functions in these cards, for example functions of authentication using a biometric sensor placed in the card. Many other improvements and developments of functions have to be planned in the future.
However, the implementation of certain functions in the cards requires the integration into these cards of electronic components of varying complexity, the space requirement of which varies from case to case. This integration entails certain difficulties inasmuch as most of the cards must comply with standardized dimensional specifications that leave little space and flexibility for integrating electronic components into a card.
Present-day cards are generally compliant with the dimensional specifications provided especially by the ISO 7810 standard. This standard defines the dimensions and tolerance values that a card must comply with, depending on its format, to be able to efficiently cooperate by contact with all the reading terminals provided for this purpose. Non-compliance with this standard can lead to major problems during the interaction of the card with a reading terminal. Typically, a card that is not compliant with the ISO 7810 standard risks not being detected by the reader terminal or risks impairing the operation of this terminal, or again risks not being read.
To date, the constraints dictated by the ISO 7810 standard therefore limit the size and layout of the electronic components which are liable to be integrated into a card, thus preventing the implementing of certain functions which would substantially improve the user's experience in particular.